Web design has come a long way in the past 30 years. Text documents strung together by inline links, background images sliced up into tables, and flash animation splash pages made unforgettable 1990s web pages. In this article, we’re going to take a look at the top five worst website designs.
#5 Disney
We’re drawn to the site’s double bottom navigation system – a must-have navigation system for 90s websites. On the one hand, you’ve got your playful wave of navigation links. On the other, you’ve got your bottom navigation bar, which looks a little odd with its links displayed in that brown/maroon color.
#4: The Internet 1996 World Exposition
The Internet 1996 World Exposition is a sort of encyclopedia of Internet history from 1996 for artists, engineers, and corporate executives. With a huge amount of subpages, this 90s website is absolutely among the top worst of the 90s decade. The site's decor, the same icon for each navigation, the fonts, and the readability.
#3: Aliweb
Aliweb is considered the world’s oldest search engine. You can either start your search by typing your content in the Search bar or searching through the categories provided below. In comparison to the websites at position number 4 and number 5, this site doesn't have the same decor but the way they used the text and the bars is a real treat for the eyes!
#2: Amazon
Silver medal to Amazon 1995! Before the mega menus, interactive carousel, and search bar with a drop-down, Amazon.com didn’t look much different from any other 90s website.
#1: Arngren
On the highest step of the podium, we have Arngren. The most shocking thing about this 90s website is that it’s still around. It is some kind of Norwegian online store? A catalog, directory? To anyone looking for something in particular on this site, good luck. With the thousands of cut-and-pasted low-quality images and blue and red hyperlinks, trying to find anything on this site is next to impossible.
Conclusion
These vintage 90s websites are truly awful. Well, technology is always evolving, and our websites need to reflect those changes. Looking at these vintage websites somebody might say that they’re definitely not designed for the user, and that is true! UX principles help make sure that our websites are accessible and a delight to interact with. As a designer, you need a well-defined process to redesign a website.